Raphael Orlove

The 2.4 liter V8 era of Formula One is over and here is the flaming, ear-splitting tribute to these screamers.

These V8s were introduced back in 2006 and they weren't particularly well-received. They didn't have the brutal wail of the previous V10s, nor did they have the musical howl of earlier V12s or the terrifying power of even earlier, smaller turbos.

But nostalgia smooths over all those faults, and now we can remember these V8s as the screaming banshees they were. There is no audio recording online that sufficiently captures the full sound of these engines, but this video of Red Bull taking the limiter off their RenaultRS27 engine (more info here) and firing it for the last time gives you a decent idea.

The 2.4 V8 engine that gave Fernando Alonso's second and Sebastian Vettel's all four…
Read more Read more

Can you hear how the sound overwhelms the microphone in that video? If you were standing there, you'd feel that as solid bursts of noise. Without those huge ear covers everyone's wearing, it's genuinely painful.

Caterham also revved the nuts off of their Renault engine, also with the 18,000 rpm limiter removed.